Track Listing
- Born To Be
- Catskill Stone
- The Tango Rose
- Shooting Arrows At The Moon
- Suicide Kings
- Harpoon Song
- Crooked Blaze
- Carla Dupree
- Lock It Down
- Dawning
- Allston Brighton
- Jump Before The Trainwreck
- Way Of The Gun
- Waltzing On The Wayside
Song samples coming soon.
©2009 Bow Thayer/ELBOP (SESAC)
Shooting Arrows At The Moon
I can honestly say this project just happened out of the Blue here in Vermont at my friend Kristina Stykos' Pepperbox Studio.
What excites me about this record is the spontaneous informality of it all, there was no real intention or pressure to produce an album so what we have is some music that had been written then abandoned and songs that were recorded in their infancy. The latter including three songs that will be on an upcoming release by Perfect Trainwreck. I hope that that you will enjoy hearing how these songs translate from a voice and guitar (or banjo) to a whole band production.
Also featured on this record is the wonderful fiddle playing of Patrick Ross who is an award-winning violinist and founding member of the group Blue Merle, as well as Kristina playing guitar and singing back up. It's crazy what talent lurks in these ancient hills. Anyway, buy this record: it is good for your soul, it's good for your ears, and it will make a great gift for any one who likes songs about death, birth, parenthood, love, addiction, confusion, hope, and the general state of the human condition.
Also, as ever, one record feeds the next and there is much work to do...
Buy it here
Physical CD
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Order your copy on this website via PayPal* or pick it up at a live show. * VT sales tax is applicable for Vermont residents. There is an additional charge for shipping. |
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Credits
Coming soon!
Bow Thayer, Shooting Arrows at the Moon
(Self-released, CD)With Shooting Arrows at the Moon, Orange County [sic] musician Bow Thayer has created an introspective gem of an album featuring sparse instrumentation and a pure sound.
Thayer was the front man for Boston newgrass heroes The Benders. More recently, he was a favorite at the dearly departed Middle Earth Music Hall in Bradford, where he rocked the house with his band the Perfect Train Wreck. Thayer still plays with his big band, which has a benefit gig scheduled at Randolph's Chandler Music Hall on January 30. But his new recording features a much more compact
band,with Thayer on vocals, guitar, banjo and ukulele, brilliant Montpelier fiddler Patrick Ross and the gloriously talented Kristina Stykos — one of Vermont's great rhythm guitarists and also the engineer of this CD.Thayer and Stykos seem to get along just fine in every way, which lends the album a sense of musical comfort throughout. And when Stykos sings harmonies alongside Thayer's lead lines, it's definitely more than the sum of just two voices.
Thayer's 14 originals reveal classy influences. He has recorded with Levon Helm and, much like every member of The Band, Thayer has the ability to write new material that sounds like an instant string-band classic. Most of the tracks feature Thayer's unadorned vocals, matched with just the right amount of acoustic accompaniment: strummed guitar, banjo figures and sinuous fiddle.
The Tango Rosehas a rhythmic groove that sounds as if a young Steve Earle had decided to have a tea party with Jerry Garcia.Way of the Guncontains high lonesome sparkle centered on Ross' exquisite fiddle work, Thayer's delicate banjo picking and another great vocal duet with Stykos.Allston Brighton,a requiem for drug casualties and other departed friends, is just about perfectly sad. Bow Thayer is quite a songwriter.The combination of Thayer's talents as a musician and composer and producer Stykos' sensitive touch in the studio has resulted in a highly pleasurable album. It leaves me hoping the pair might collaborate again sometime soon. Shooting Arrows at the Moon is available at www.bowthayer.com.
Seven Days December 2009